The European Commission adopted Interreg-IPA cross-border programme between Bulgaria and Turkey. Promoting the environment, preserving the natural and cultural assets in the region and developing sustainable tourism will form the key focus of the programme. Funding will also be channelled to measures that improve research and competitiveness in the regions and mitigate the brain drain.
Corina Crețu, Commissioner for Regional Policy said: "This programme will benefit the people living in the Bulgarian and Turkish border regions. Our cross-border programmes are for many the most visible outcomes of how the EU is bringing communities together to find common solutions to common problems. Thanks to this cross-border programme, cooperation can bring many advantages to the people living in those areas: in terms of jobs, research and innovation and tourism."
The Interreg IPA CBC Bulgaria-Turkey programme covers 3 border regions in Bulgaria and 2 Turkish provinces. It is worth almost € 30 million, with a contribution of more than €25 million from the Instrument for Pre-accession Assistance (IPA).
Some of the expected results include:
· Preventing and mitigating the consequences of natural and man-made disasters in the cross-border area by enhancing capacity for environmental emergency preparedness and by setting a set of different measures, including amongst other early warning and disaster management systems, the sanitation and reforestation of river banks, the setting up of spatial plans across borders or rather soft measures like training and awareness raising of civil society
· Improving the capacity for nature protection, sustainable use and management of common natural resources by fostering the capacity of the relevant regions to increase knowledge transfer across borders aiming at reaching the vision of a low-carbon economy and a high level of environmental protection and management including for example investments in green infrastructure as well as training and capacity building activities for target groups.
· Supporting spatial planning initiatives across borders, especially related to spatial planning of maritime space, in order to harmonize land and sea use across borders
Background:
The 5 NUTS III regions involved in the Interreg IPA CBC Bulgaria - Turkey programme are:
· Bulgaria: Burgas Region, Yambol Region, Haskovo Region
· Turkey: Edirne Province, Kırklareli Province
The programme will focus on the following two priorities: Environment and Sustainable tourism.
